DD wondering if Exeter goes into clearing for Law

[sparrowflewdown]

Does anyone know whether Exeter ever goes into clearing for law. DD is hoping to achieve AAB. Would she have a chance?

I’d be astonished if it was. Sorry.

highly unlikely

Ok thanks. 2019 did have clearing for Law but just wanted to check if anyone had recent knowledge in the last couple of years.

I suspect it's quite difficult to predict what will be available in clearing.

Universities will have an idea of how many students they want on each course - it might vary whether they can flex on this from year to year. They'll make a number of offers at a level that they hope will yield the right number of students, but until the A-level results come out, they won't know who has made their offer, and also which of the students for whom they are the insurance offer have not made it into their first choice. Some years they might get it bang on right. If they get more than they really wanted, then they have to take them, so they probably try to avoid that happening*. If they undershoot, then they can go into clearing, and they can also make offers to students who just missed their offer.
They might be quite happy to undershoot a little and fill up from clearing, but they won't want to end up with unfilled spaces.

So it's probably going to fluctuate from year to year, depending on how the numbers work out.

*I went to one open day for a subject where this had happened three years in a row. They hadn't increased their offer, so it was fairly clear that they were very unlikely to have any spaces for "near misses".

Sounds unlikely, but then unlikely things can happen. My nephew got a place for medicine at a different RG uni in 2024 clearing.

Exeter actually did have a wide range of courses in clearing on results day last year, but the list dwindled rapidly as they were snapped up. One factor which may be in play this year is that they have demolished some of the dated accommodation on campus and not yet got the replacement development onstream.

So plan for a gap year potentially and a reapplication after grades are in hand, but keep a keen eye on the UCAS clearing lists and act very, very quickly if something comes up, ie have the admissions office numbers already saved, ready to call.

For last Septembers intake I had a nosey in clearing and quite a few unexpected RG unis had spaces in clearing for lots of very popular courses.

I was really surprised actually so there is always a chance OP
Don’t forget OP you can call the uni directly on the morning of clearing as they may well have a space.

They did go quickly though.

Very very unlikely.
Im not sure they go into clearing for anything.

Ok so ignore me
Ive just read some posts and apparently they are sometimes in clearing.

Undergrads are ok though
My son has been told he won’t be offered accommodation though. He’s British and a postgrad student. They are only offering International postgrad students accommodation, nothing for the Brits!
So much for their inclusivity and equalities policy

Possibly for the LLB Law with Business course at the Penryn campus

Where out of interest has your DD firmed and put as insurance @sparrowflewdown

Thank you for all your replies it has been very helpful.

She has an offer from Cardiff and has firmed with them and RHUL or Reading as an insurance. She was predicted ABB but has put a lot of work in since then and increased her predicted by a grade.

DD is from a school on the list of targeted list but didn't put it on her UCAS form. I am not sure whether this would have made a difference though as we are a high earning family.

Would Cardiff be the best option for Law with her potential grades?

Just bear in mind that when universities go into clearing the grades they are asking are generally the same as the grades they were asking initially. They don't generally drop the grades unless they are massively undersubscribed. They have places as a result of students not achieving the grades they were asked for.

So if Exeter law is generally say AAA (Im not sure what it is) then its still likely to be AAA if it goes into clearing. They will be hoping to scoop up people who got AAA but needed say Astar A star A to go to their first choice university.

Have a lok at UCAS Extra. If Exeter law isn't in Extra then it isn't undersubscribed. If it isn't undersubscribed then it still might go into clearing due to people not getting the grades they needed but they are unlikely to drop the grade requirement.

One of my young relatives got a place in clearing for Law at KCL a few years ago. You never know.

That's amazing, is KCL good for law? Or a good London option in any case?

With Welsh employers definitely Cardiff! I’d probably rank Nottingham slightly higher amongst those that care about the minutiae of RG rankings (which is not any of us that work in HE - and my ds had a ball at Cardiff!) - and, ahem, more likely to be in clearing.

Remember too that unis have the option of keeping offer holders with dropped grades before putting places into clearing so often (especially with the well publicised uni financial difficulties) they are likely to keep someone who just missed a grade to ensure bums on seats and cash in the bank.

It's very good for law.

Cardiff is a decent law school and despite them being ranked lower in some of the league tables Reading's law school is excellent. The course is very well structured and very engaging and they allow students to carry on through to SQE prep year. DH and I are both senior lawyers and Reading is DS2's insurance but we actually both came away thinking the course was far better and the lecturers far more inspiring at Reading than at his top choice which is asking A*AA

Yes I agree that Reading looks like a great option @marsaline. Do you think this would be a better option for DD? DD has gone off Cardiff but I think it is a great university.

I agree that Exeter are are unlikely to take DD even if she pulls everything out of the bag and gets 3As as they will probably offer to those who have already been offered a place even if they drop a grade. If she managed to pull 3As out of the bag she probably would struggle as they may well just offer to those already with a place with the dropped grade over her. I am wondering whether she should just focus on Cardiff or Reading?

Exeter may well be in clearing and if it is and she has achieved whatever grades they ask for then she can contact them and ask whether they will take her if she really doesn't want to go to Cardiff or Reading. But that isn't what she should be focussing on now since there is literally nothing she can do at the moment until she gets her results unless she wants to reject both of her offers and apply to Exeter through the UCAS Extra process. Exeter law is actually showing in UCAS extra which means that they still do have spaces to make an offer but the grade requirement is AAA.

There are a number of highly ranked universities in Extra for law - Lancaster, Exeter Leeds Manchester Birmingham Surrey Newcastle Liverpool etc. Some of these are only asking for AAB. They won't necessarily be in clearing since they may well take lower grades from those who have firmed or they may be very popular insurance choices (particularly the very highly ranked places like Lancaster and Exeter) but it does give a bit of an indication.

I agree that she should just focus on her exams for now but I think the possibility is giving her that last push/drive to do well in her exams.

There is also the issue that she has applied for accommodation in Cardiff and she may struggle to find anything in the other two now, especially Exeter. I imagine the accommodation in Exeter would also be expensive too.

Good luck to your DS @marsaline. Where does he want to go?